


Robbers

by p0pcandy



Series: Matter of Belief [2]
Category: Borderlands
Genre: Additional Tags to Be Added, Although Jack isn't really the suspect anymore, Detective and Suspect au, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Henderson is dead, Jack has bpd, Kidnapping, M/M, Minor Character Death, Normal AU, Rhys wears glasses, Torture, Vasquez is dead, pretty much Jack and Rhys' relationship is fluff, some characters may come in later chapters, what do you think I wouldn't have that in here?, when i said he wasn't the suspect i meant he kinda is but Rhys is his get out of jail free-card lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-10
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-08-12 00:43:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7913779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/p0pcandy/pseuds/p0pcandy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhys is sent to investigate Saul Henderson's death; which just happened to be in Jack's company's building. </p><p>~~~~~~~~</p><p>A sequel to: If I Believe You</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A death in the company

**Author's Note:**

> What can I say? I missed writing this a lot.  
> If you came here and haven't read "If I Believe You" yet I would quickly read it before this!!  
> I will update on Mondays, Wensdays, and Fridays- Thank you all!!

Jack woke, looking at the form beside him rising and falling softly. It had been a crazy two months since Rhys got his new arm, and he had finally settled on calling Jack his boyfriend. Although they still haven't done anything, Jack was glad he could call the detective his own.

Leaning over, he placed a soft kiss on the side of Rhys’ forehead and trailed a line of kisses to Rhys’ neck. Gently he started to suck right in the middle of his tattoo that he had gotten a month prior. Rhys said it was to keep the hickeys hidden, but that didn't stop Jack from finding new places to leave marks. Jack liked to make sure they were definitely visible too. A sleepy laugh from Rhys caused Jack look up to him through his lashes to see what he was laughing at.

“Jaaaaaack, come on I can't go to work with a fresh hickey,” Rhys mumbled, blinking the sleep from his eyes and moving a hand to the back of Jack's head.

“mm too bad, looks like you'll have to stay home then,” Jack said against Rhys’ skin and licked the spot that was now turning a slight red.

“Jack,” Rhys said through laughter as his hand moved to his shoulders due to Jack readjusting himself over Rhys. Jack gave Rhys a quick kiss before leaning into his neck again to suck on it.

“Your skin is soft,” Jack mumbled, tracing a hand down Rhys’ side, “Can't you call in sick and have a little fun with me?” Rhys gave him a chuckle and ran his hand up to Jack's hair again.

“No, no I can't, and you can't either Mr. Hyperion, come on, we both need to get up.” Rhys tried to sit up but Jack slumped himself on top of Rhys and give out a snort while doing so.

“Jack come on, I have work to do you big lug,” Rhys tried to push Jack off of him and grunted, “Jaaack!” Jack sat up for a second before kissing Rhys on the lips and slipping his tongue into Rhys’ mouth making a protest get lost in the kiss. Jack leaned back slowly with a chuckle.

“Considering that sick day now?” Jack cooed and Rhys hummed back approvingly, bringing Jack back into another kiss.

Just then the phone rang and Rhys parted from the kiss, trying to move over to pick up the phone. “Rhys, babe. Just let it go to voicemail.”

“I'm not going to let it go to voicemail, Jack,” Rhys grabbed his phone and answered it, watching Jack smirk out of the corner of his eye. Rhys mouthed “What?” As Jack let out a playful growl and lean into his ear and ghosted over it with a hot breath. Rhys went red as he _tried_ to focus on the phone.

“H-Hello?”

“Rhys, I was hoping you would take a call for me.”

“Of course, Fi- Ah!” Jack bit Rhys’ shoulder with another playful growl, getting a glare from Rhys in return.

“Are...you... Actually, you know what, I can take this call,” Fiona said on the other line of the phone after clearing her throat. Jack licked where he bit, then left a kiss as he moved up to Rhys’ neck and started to suck again.

“N-No! I can take it-” Rhys gripped onto Jack's hair with a hiss.

“Don't uh... Don't stress yourself.”

“Fiona! Wait just give me the loca-” Jack bit down again and Rhys let out a sharp whine as the line went dead, “J-Jack.”

“Whoops looks like you have to stay with me now.”

“You ass,” Rhys murmured as he pushed Jack off of him, he went to pick up his arm that was on the charger. Jack, just as soon as Rhys had tried to get off of the bed, wrapped an arm around him and pulled him back to the bed, causing Rhys let out a startled gasp.

“Don't think you're getting away that easy,” Jack laughed while pulling his other arm around Rhys, kissing behind his ear.

“Jack! Come on this is serious I have a case to work on!”

“Mmh yeah you do, it's the case of the tickler.”

“Jack don't you dare I swear to go-” Rhys broke out into laughter as Jack started to assault his sides with tickles and blew on his neck, “Ja-aha-ack s-stop!” Rhys pushed away from him with a triumphant snort and took a pillow to swiftly toss in Jack's face. It hit him dead on and tumbled into Jack's lap.

“Awh Rhys, Rhys, Rhys, _Rhys_.” Jack slowly rose, the pillow clenched in his hand, “You just started a war baby,” Rhys squeaked and scrambled to release his prosthetic arm from the charger, Jack had no mercy in this so called “war” as he threw the pillow and it hit Rhys right on the side. Rhys sputtered and started to attach his arm before being hit with another pillow.

“You can't even wait for me to get my arm on?! Didn't you ever get taught to play fair?” Jack let out another playful growl as he heard the clicks of Rhys’ arm attaching.

“I am fighting fair, you have a dead aim with that arm of yours.”

“No it's so not fa-” Jack pounced and sent Rhys and himself to the floor, leaning over him with a wolfish grin. Jack let out a chuckle as he leaned down close enough to kiss Rhys, and felt both of Rhys’ arms wrap around his neck and pull him closer. They stayed like that for well over a minute before Jack finally pulled away and got off of Rhys.

“So you're sure you can't stay?”

“No, I got a case I have to get on. That is if you didn't scare away Fiona.”

“Ohh so that's who was on the phone.”

“Yep,” Rhys pushed himself up and stood while brushing himself off, he picked up his glasses off the nightstand and put them on as he made his way to the door, “Maybe I'll come by later tonight,” he gave Jack a wink as he walked out.

 

“Good morning,” Rhys announced his arrival as he walked into his office already seeing Fiona and Vaughn talking to each other in it, he took a sip of his coffee as the two looked to him, “You know you guys shouldn't really be in here unless I invite you,”

“Rhys this is important,”

“What is it about? The case?” He saw Fiona roll her eyes.

“No it's about Megan's baby shower- of course it's about the case!”

“Woah, Megan is having a baby?”

“Oh my god,” Fiona sighed, the whole thing seemed to humor Vaughn though.

“You two act like siblings,” Vaughn said a tiny smile on his face as he tried to hold back his laughter.

“Do not!” Both Rhys and Fiona yelled at the same time, making silence take over the room before they all broke out into laughter.

“I hope this isn't about the case,” came a murmur from the door which made Rhys jump and look behind him to Yvette.

“N-No it wasn't we were-”

“Good, because I highly doubt a dead guy with multiple stab wounds is anything to laugh about,”

“Way to tear down the mood Yvette,”

“Hey, it's my job as a public defender, so are we going to discuss it or do I have to send one of you out to look at it?” There seemed to be an uneasy atmosphere in the room right before Yvette sighed, “Alright, then, let's get to work,” Yvette let herself out as Vaughn followed talking to her about needing pictures of the scene. Fiona and Rhys locked eyes.

“Rock paper scissors?”

“Don't be a kid, I'm driving,”

“Oh, good, I'll make sure to write the speeding ticket now,”

“You're not a cop anymore!” Fiona sing-song as she walked out the door, leaving Rhys no choice but to follow her.

 

While trying to hold back a couple of screams from how Fiona was driving, he finally noticed where they were headed.

“Holy shit,” Rhys whispered out as he looked at the two buildings and the long connecting piece that made the building look like a huge H.

“Yeah, we still don't know who was killed or when this person was killed, but according to the forensic team that got there before us, the person was in Saul Henderson’s office,” Fiona said as she pulled into the parking lot and stepping on the breaks harshly making the tires screech.

“I'd hate to work here...” Rhys mumbled as he stepped out of the car, pushing up his glasses.

“With how you are I'm sure you'd be OK here,”

“I don't know... There's been a lot of murders here in the past year,”

“Pssft, yeah like two.”

“Nu-uh there was that janitor remember?”

“Ooohh yeah... Man I felt really bad for his family,” Fiona shut the door and tossed the keys to Rhys, and he almost didn't catch them... _Almost._ “Hey doesn't your boyfriend work here?”

“Yeah, as the CEO,”

“I thought his daughter was,”

“Just until he got out of jail,” Rhys opened the door to the front lobby and let Fiona walk in before himself.

“Well, what does she do now?”

“You know, I actually don't know, I think she goes to college? I'm not sure,”

“You should find out, I mean you kind of are her dad now if you think about it,” Fiona and Rhys walked up to the desk where there was a clearly shaken woman, “FBI, we need to get to the seventeenth floor,” Fiona flashed her badge quickly as the woman gave them clearance almost immediately.

“Yeah, I mean I get that but I don't think she even thinks of me like that,”

“Well tough shit for her then, you _are_ dating her father,” Rhys rolled his eyes with a nod as they both got onto an employee elevator.

“But it's not like she's a kid anymore I mean, she's twenty now,”

“Not old enough to drink then she's still a kid,”

“Yeah, I mean... Maybe, but I can't just be like, “Oh I'm your dad now,” you know?”

“The way I see it is that it should be easier to tell her that,”

“What if it's not?”

“Listen, Rhys, you just tell her the facts and she's bound to be like, oh! OK! Just be lucky you don't have to say it to a kid and have to hear them do that whole “where's mommy?” Thing ya know?” Fiona flicked her hat back a little and put some of her hair behind her ear.

“Sounds like you've done this before,”

“Well, not me... My adoptive father Felix,”

“Oh... I see,” Rhys quieted himself as the elevator beeped.

“This is our floor,”

“You know for an express shaft that thing goes really slow,” Rhys and Fiona stepped out walking to where a few computers were set up along with yellow tape that blocked off the office. Fiona peeked inside with a whistle and showed her badge to the officer guarding the tape. They lifted it up and let the two pass through.

“Wow, just imagine doing paperwork that someone just comes into your office and stabs you in the chest,”

“Oh god it smells horrible in here,” Rhys mumbled holding his nose as a few forensic people walked by him, “Hey did anyone get on that computer?”

A forensic person walking by mumbled no as they walked out the door.

“I tried detective but there was nothing on it,” a female voice from behind them said, “There were no files, no usbs anywhere, the guy was wiped clean, it was super friggin weird,” Rhys looked back to the woman with red hair up in ponytails, who now looked like she was around Angel’s age.

“Sorry this might sound rude but- who...who are you?” Rhys asked an eyebrow raised.

“Name's Gaige, I'm the youngest but,” a soft laugh left her, “brightest digital forensic scientist out there,”

“I'm sure you are, OK let's get everything wrapped up here,” Rhys flipped open his notebook and started to write down some things in it as Fiona looked around the body.

“Did we get an ID yet?”

“As far as we know ma’am this is Henderson,”

Fiona hummed and looked to Rhys, “write that down, say do we have the time of death?”

“About two days,”

“Alight Gaige go get the surveillance camera footage for Saturday and Friday,” Rhys said writing down when Henderson died, “Man killed on a Weekend, that's terrible,”

“Someone really didn't like this dude,” Fiona looked on the desk and underneath it, “I'd say this looks like a keep your mouth shut murder,”

“You know it's easier to say revenge killing,”

Fiona stood straight and looked at Rhys, “Mouth shut murder,”

“Right... OK well we have to go talk to the family,”

“If he had one,”

“I'm sure he had one,” Rhys ducked under the yellow tape and closed his notebook, “Tell us anything you find, me and Fiona are going to contact the family,” Fiona followed him as a few other people gave affirmative hums.

“Do you think he had something against a big drug lord?” Fiona whispered a sparkle in her eye.

“You know I'd like to never get involved with a drug lord again,” Rhys flashed his arm back at Fiona.

“Right... I keep forgetting,” Rhys lead Fiona to an elevator and clicked the button to go down. He stepped back and looked behind himself to one that had just opened.

“I don't care if the whole board got mysteriously ill with the flu Meg, we need to go over the project of- well tell them Jack doesn't wait alright?” Jack had stepped out of the elevator and stopped in his tracks as he looked from Fiona to Rhys, “Just tell them to be there at twelve, I have to go.” Jack put away his phone as he walked over, “Hey look at this! I heard there was a dead body here but I didn't know that we'd get the cutest detective to investigate it,” he heard Rhys laugh as Jack stepped closer and kissed him on the cheek.

“Eww, save it for the bedroom guys,” Fiona smirked at the two and the elevator dinged. Rhys looked at the elevator and back to Jack.

“Why are you here? I thought your office was on the twentieth floor,”

“I wanted to see who got killed, it would suck if it was someone useful,”

“Rhys? Are you coming?” Fiona said from inside the elevator.

“I'll catch up to you in the parking lot,”

“Alright, don't gross out the squints,” the elevator doors closed and Rhys looked back to Jack, leaning in and holding onto the front of his jacket.

“Apparently the forensic team says it was Henderson,”

“Didn't like that guy anyway,”

“Jack...”

“What?” Jack studied Rhys’ face, “ _Rhys_ , really? Come on why would I kill a low-level management head?”

“You know I have to be thorough,”

“I'm tired of being a suspect, though,”

“I bet,” Rhys laughed and kissed Jack softly, “I have to go check with the family now,”

“I don't think he had one,” Jack whispered and ran a hand through Rhys’ hair getting his hand swatted away.

“Speaking of family... I uh... Angel is she-”

“Spit it out pumpkin,”

“Is she going to be OK with this? W-With us?” Jack blinked and laughed while shaking his head.

“Rhysie, baby, she's been fine with it this whole time!”

“I-I was just worried that-”

“Hell she probably likes you better than me,” the comment sent a smile to Rhys’ face as he looked away shyly.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Jack said with a kiss to Rhys’ forehead, “Come on we both got different floors to be on,”

“R-Right,”

 

Rhys walked out into the parking lot rubbing his neck with a soft whistle.

“Finally, you took forever in there what happened?”

“Uhm... Well...” Rhys looked at the ground as he remembered how when he got into the elevator Jack had made out with him at first then pinned him to the wall and gave him another hickey, “I don't think you want to know,” he whispered with a chuckle as he unlocked the car and got in.

“Gross Rhys,”

“I'll be saying the same to you when you get one if your own.” Rhys got in the driver's seat and started it up waiting until Fiona got in and closed the door to drive off.

“I'm a bit too busy for a relationship right now, competing to get the top spot in the bureau is hard work,”

“Remind me who you're trying to compete against again? Oh yeah, _me_ , good luck with that Fiona,”

“I have a gun on me you know,”

“Oh, what are you going to do with that little pistol?”

“Oh shut up Rhys,” Fiona crossed her arms but grinned anyway, “watch the road,”

“I, in fact, am a perfect driver, unlike you,”

“I get us there quicker,”

“At least I get us there safe,” Rhys mumbled shooting a smirk at Fiona.

“I got us here safe!”

“You were lucky,” Rhys turned the small in-vehicle laptop to Fiona, “Search up Henderson,”

“Sure thing,” after a few quiet moments Fiona leaned back, “Good news and bad news,”

“Good news is?”

“We don't have to interview a family,”

“What's the bad news then?” Rhys said, a bit agitated.

“We don't have a family to interview,”


	2. Cold Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys' choice to investigate Henderson's assistant didn't really go as planned. Then again what does?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every time I read a comment that says "I've missed this so much!!" I shed tears of joy! You guys are so awesome and I'm so happy you guys like this as much as I do!!!

“So I looked over the scene and you guys were right, well kinda,” Vaughn put the pictures he was looking at down, “I would say revenge killing but I think it's more on the lines of a “keep your mouth shut killing”, so Henderson knew something he shouldn't have,”

“Told you,” Fiona said with a smirk to Rhys as he shot a glare at her.

“I think Gaige mentioned something about his computer being wiped? So he definitely knew something that someone didn't want anyone to find out about,”

“Yeah but who?” Rhys said crossing his arms.

“Well that's your job, not mine,” Vaughn shrugged and sat down on one of the multiple chairs lining the long table.

“Did he have an assistant or anything? Anyone remotely close to him?” Rhys saw Fiona look off into the distance.

“You know he might have an assistant, he was a department head after all,”

“Yeah, but what could middle management find out that would make someone want to kill him?” Rhys asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Maybe Hyperion has some projects that Jack doesn't want to let anyone find out about,”

“Watch what you say, Fiona,” Rhys hissed softly and she raised hands in a mock surrender.

“I'm just saying, we have to keep our options open,”

“How dare y-”

“She's right Rhys, we need to look at all possibilities,”

“Thanks, Vaughn,” Rhys said sarcastically.

“Hey just stating facts here Rhys,”

“Why don't we go question his personal assistant huh? Maybe they knew something, also- _also_ have you guys learned nothing from the last case concerning Jack? Huh?” Rhys slammed his robotic arm on the table and a loud crack erupted from the wood, “Because let me tell you, _I sure have_.” With a huff Rhys walked out of the room, growling and grumbling to himself.

 

Jack sat as his desk sifting through papers trying to look at all of them with just a slight scan of the eyes, although that really didn't work as well as he wanted it too.

“Sir?” Came a voice from his speaker phone.

“Yes, Meg?” He asked while fixing the glasses that were falling off of his face.

“Rhys is here to see-”

“Ooh! Send him in!” Jack cut her off, taking off his glasses and fixing his hair and clothes slightly. Rhys opened the door to Jack's office and looked around the vast room. “Rhysie!” Jack called from his desk and opened his arms wide.

“Jack,” Rhys sighed and walked up to the desk, sitting in one of the chairs in front of it.

“Hey, what's with the long face babe?” Jack said, scooching closer to hold Rhys’ hand that was placed on the desk.

“It's happening again,”

“W-What is?”

“Everyone thinks you're the prime suspect again, it's so frustrating,” Rhys heard Jack laugh and he gave him a questioning glance.

“Oh great, tell me pumpkin, what is my motive this time?”

“To keep Henderson quiet,”

“Ooh that's a good one,” Rhys looked down at their hands with a worried expression and Jack sighed, “listen, Rhys I didn't even know the guy existed until he bragged his mouth about putting up an animal fighting rink then asked me for a promotion, hell, I was going to _fire_ that guy,” Rhys rose his eyebrows in shock, “Whoever killed him did me a favor, but he had nothing to blackmail me with I assure you, so I don't think he'd warrant being killed to be kept quiet.” Rhys looked into Jack's eyes and sighed, relieved as he got up and moved by Jack to give him a soft kiss on his cheek.

“Promise?”

“Look, we both know I can kill, but this wasn't me. I can assure you that,” Rhys took in the information with a nod.

“Let's hope you don't kill anyone,”

“Already did remember? Speaking of which the investigation on that it’s-”

“Dropped, they suspect a gang fight,”

“Good...” Jack leaned up to steal a quick kiss from Rhys and gave him a smile, “Hang in there babe, and if it helps I'll give you anything you need,”

“What about a back massage?”

“Mmh... Yeah,” Jack winked at him, “After the paperwork Ok? Maybe then we can go home and get a little rowdy,” Jack saw Rhys blush and hide his face with a nervous laugh.

“I-I dunno Jack,”

“Hey, I've been waiting this long for consent, I can wait longer if I need too,” Rhys nodded slowly and gave a quick peck on Jack's cheek.

“Thank you for understanding,”

“Anything for you babe,” Jack, just as Rhys was about to walk away whistled catching Rhys’ attention, “You sure you don't need anything?” He called and Rhys stopped in his tracks.

“Actually, yeah. Do you know if Henderson had an assistant?”

“Not sure, but I can check darling,” Jack pushed a button on his intercom, “Hey Meg, be a dear for me and see if Henderson had an assistant if he did can you show Rhys to her or... Him?”

There was a mumble of “yes sir,” on the other line and Jack waved at Rhys as he left his office to go over to Meg. Even so, as soon as he had stepped out of the door he was met with her directly in front of him.

“Woah, you guys are quite quick to react,” Rhys chuckled nervously as he was shot a glance at her as she started to walk off.

“This way detective,” she whispered and lead Rhys through the halls, coming to a stop at a door simply labeled “200”

“Wow, uh...” Rhys examined it and pushed up his glasses slightly, “Sure this isn’t a hotel room?” he joked, although when he looked to Meg he was only met with a solemn glance, “What’s the face for?”

“I... Should be getting back to work, Handsome Jack is expecting me back soon,”

“Handsome Jack?” Rhys said almost defensively with a furrowed brow.

“Good luck, detective.” With that, Meg walked away in a quick shimmy.

“Handsome Jack...?” Rhys repeated to himself thinking it over, well yeah... ok Jack was handsome... but seriously? He shook his head and knocked on the door before he opened it. “Hello my name is-” he blinked as he looked over the scene in front of him, a blonde woman, not too younger than him had her head laid down on the desk as blood was trickling down onto the ground and making a rather large puddle on the desk from a wound in the side of her head, a gun tightly held in her hand. Even though years in the field had helped him with his gag reflex, this did something to him and he stepped back, a hand over his mouth feeling the bile rise in his throat. He quickly looked away from the scene, the smell just now catching his nose, making him whine and walk away from the door, steady steps to make sure he didn’t lose his breakfast.

“What the fuck,” he whispered out as he looked back to the scene, his nose wrinkling in disgust. He shook his head quickly and got his phone out to dial up Fiona, and in only two rings she had picked up.

“Heeeellllooooo?”

“There’s been a suicide, it’s uh... Henderson’s assistant,”

“What?!” Fiona on the other end soundly liked she was rushing to get things packed, “Call the forensic team in, t-this might be a staged, shit,” The line went dead almost immediately and with a worried gulp Rhys called up the forensic team.

They had arrived in near minutes, taping off the scene and getting to work. Rhys, unfortunately, had to stay until Fiona arrived, he looked up to the people running back and forth, all collecting what they needed to know. With as much courage he could muster, he stopped leaning on the door and walked forward.

“So... What can we classify this as?”

A woman with blue hair had looked at him, then back to the body with a sigh, “Suicide, detective. Just like you guessed,” The woman turned her laptop to Rhys, showing him the results of the test. Which, if he was being honest with himself, he could hardly read. “We found gunpowder residue on her hands, so she shot herself,”

“What did nobody else hear it?” Rhys mumbled, he had slightly turned himself so he wouldn’t have to look at the cadaver anymore.

“I believe that's what you have to figure out,” Rhys looked at her with a worried glance before walking to the door beside the office with the dead body in it. He looked back once at the forensic team before knocking on the door. After no response, he opened it carefully seeing it was empty. “Uh... Do we know who works in this office?” There were a few no's and Rhys rolled his eyes. “Of course,” he whispered and stepped back to see Fiona running down the hall holding onto her hat.

“Where is it?!” She yelled down the hall before stopping in front of Rhys, panting slightly.

“In the office with the ta-”

“This is no time for sarcasm, we need to check her... Well everything, where's that digital forensic person?” Fiona started walking towards the scene, and instead of following her Rhys got out his phone and walked away as he called Jack. The ringing tone of his phone echoed throughout the now empty seeming halls he was walking through. He turned his gaze from the carpeted ground to outside where the dark storm-like clouds had begun to form, and a loud thunder crack confirmed it was going to rain soon. The phone kept ringing and Rhys let out a frustrated sigh.

“Come on Jack... Pick up...” The line soon went to voicemail and Rhys murmured an insult as he hung up. It took about a minute before his pocket buzzed like wild.

> _Sorry babe u need anything??_

> _I was in a meeting forgive me cupcake xoxo_

Rhys felt some of his worry wilt away, but not the sick feeling he had.

> I need access to everything. There's been another death.

> _Another? Alright just use my code bby 45632_

Rhys gave a silent nod as he simply sent a heart to Jack and got two in return. With a soft snort he looked up to the halls, all covered with various doors with various places. All the places he could go was really making his head spin. Even so, he decided that the best place to start would be R&D at level... Well, that's the problem he didn't know. He started walking to the elevator him and Meg had gone down. It was one of the only one's that led to Jack's office so it had to lead to R&D too. As he went through the halls and eventually coming to the elevator the bad feeling that he had grew. Rhys wanted to chalk it up as seeing Henderson's assistant like that. He entered the elevator and looked through the buttons.

Rhys furrowed his eyebrows with a sigh, of course, they wouldn't just label it “R&D”...even if it was Jack's elevator. He went for the best guess he could think of, which was the fifth floor. He knew number one was the basement and that the sixth was the entrance to the building. Just to make sure he clicked three and four for good measure. The elevator came to life as he stepped back and looked to the ground.

He wasn't going to lie, ever since what Vasquez had done to him he was a little jumpier. He had always kind of gagged at seeing dead bodies sure, at least in person, but that was mostly because of the smell. It was really disgusting after a while. To add to everything that was happening Hyperion almost seemed like a ghost town. It's not like Rhys expected there to be people running everywhere but he did expect some wanderers. Maybe someone going on a break or going to deliver some papers, but there was nothing. Almost no one but the dead bodies. He was brought out of his thoughts by a ding of the elevator stopping on the fifth floor. With careful steps he walked out and held the elevator door.

He couldn't tell much but this definitely looked like another office space. Jesus, how many did Hyperion need? He stepped back in and it had moved to the fourth floor, which, surprise, was also offices.

Thankfully that had changed as he reached the third. This definitely looked different than the others. He stepped out and looked around, high walls, all colored the same faded shade of baby blue and the big window that seemed to lead out to a garage of some sort. It was empty so Rhys was confused of why it was even there, but it was probably for testing purposes.

His gaze snapped to the computers lined up almost in a perfect horseshoe like shape. From the looks of it, the chairs all backed up and some of the computers still on, it seemed like they had tried to get out of here in a hurry. He didn't think nothing of it, it was lunch after all and Rhys knew how boring paperwork could be. Sitting down at one of the desks he looked over the program that was still on in one of the computers. “Loaderbot.exe” Rhys whispered out with a quiet hum, clicking the go button, and pretty much regretting it immediately as the loud whir and clicking of a panel was heard behind him.

Rhys stood and ran over to the large window as the ground down below on the testing arena rose up to show tons of robots in a row. His breath hitched and the bad feeling had made itself known again, his stomach twisting as he saw weapons mounted on some. “What is this?” He whispered to himself, knowing fully well that... Well... Fiona and Vaughn could be right. He heard the ding of the elevator just in time to hide behind one if the desks, holding his breath and trying not to make much noise as whoever came out of the elevator.

“Oh, good!” A voice said, almost sarcastic, “Look at this they're already out, have to say they're looking nice,” Rhys’ eyes widened at the sound of Jack's voice and the tapping of the glass.

“I-I was sure I hid them, I don't know why they're out sir,”

“Maybe you should check memory then, just don't make it a habit,” Jack hissed, the sound of him turning and the other man stepping away in fear echoed through the large room, “Now tell me, how is their AI going?”

“T-They killed one of the scientists in one of their test runs,”

“Who isn't dying in this company, hell I would watch your back, Denis, you might be next,” the scientist took another step back and Rhys lost his hold on his legs for a second when trying to hide himself further. He knew he fucked up when he heard the shuffle of his lanky legs echo throughout the room. Both of them had stopped talking, and just when he heard the scientist about to talk up, Jack shushed him. Rhys risked looking through the bottom of the desk to see what was going on. Jack was looking his way, his body turned and a hand on his gun. Which, by _law_ , he shouldn’t have. Rhys saw Jack flinch and before he knew it a shot ran through the room, the scientist had cowered and Rhys dared to look behind him where a bullet was wedged into the wall. “Next shot will go to your head if you don’t show yourself,” Jack growled and Rhys heard the gun being cocked again. Rhys’ eyes widened as the only thing he could see himself doing was running from here.

There was something _wrong_ with how Jack was talking, his voice more gruff and dark almost. Jack was ready to kill. He was ready to kill whoever had found out this secret, and he didn’t want to admit it, but now he was wishing he had listened to Vaughn and Fiona. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to clear his thoughts but they wouldn’t go away. Jack wouldn’t hurt him- but he had already shot at him. He opened his eyes with the realization that his next actions were between life and death.

He shouldn’t have seen the robots- he shouldn’t have gotten shot at, by _Jack_ of all people. He took in a sharp breath and pushed himself up, not standing still after and had immediately started running down the hall to get away from Jack. He heard Jack call out his name, but that didn’t stop him as he rounded the corner and fished out his phone with shaky hands and dialed 911. He put it up to his ear as he hid in that corner, knowing Jack would probably be running after him now.

“Rhysie! Come out wherever you are!” he heard Jack yell down the hall with a low growl in his voice, “I wouldn’t run Rhys,” Rhys took a few deep breaths to try to calm himself down as the phone had finally gone through.

“9-11, what is your emergency?”

“T-This is detective Rhys, I need back-up imme-” suddenly he couldn’t feel his phone in his hand anymore and he turned his head to Jack taking the phone from him and slamming it on the ground, crushing it with his foot afterward.

“I wouldn’t do that, _Rhysie_ ,” Jack growled, grabbing Rhys’ arms and pushing him to the wall glaring into his eyes. They were dark, and scary looking it terrified Rhys, he felt his chest tighten and his eyes start to water. The last time Rhys had seen Jack look like this is when he was pummeling Vasquez. With a whine Rhys tried to make himself as small as possible, Jack leaned into Rhys’ face, his mouth pulled back in a snarl and his eyebrows furrowed, “Don’t you run from me again,”


	3. Paint me as the Villain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack is one of the many problems someone like Rhys will have to face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got a better idea of where this is going! Also thanks for the comments, kudos, and in general reading this!! I really cannot wait until we get to the more beefy chapters where, just like every other thing I do, is filled with angst- not that this one isn't ahaha

There was an eerie silence that came over the two and the grip around Rhys’ wrists only got tighter, “Do  _ not _ punch me when I let go of your arm, because trust me you  _ will _ regret it,” Jack hissed and Rhys quickly nodded his head, a soft whimper leaving his lips. 

Jack leaned in closer, his eyes turning to slits and one of his hands releasing Rhys’ arm. It had come up and harshly grabbed Rhys’ chin, turning his head side to side before up and down. Jack had finished studying Rhys’ face, his eyes still dark and full of rage. Rhys wanted to say something,  _ please don't hurt me _ , he silently pleaded closing his eyes only for them to jolt open at the sound of the wall behind him cracking.

“What the  _ FUCK _ were you thinking?!” Jack roared, his eyes widening in anger as he sent another punch to the wall, “Do you realize how fucking  _ lucky _ you are that I know what you look like from every angle?!”

“I-I’m so-” Rhys begun, his voice soft and wobbly.

“What if I had just shot you?!” Jack stood back, his other hand coming to cage Rhys in instead of pinning him to the wall. Jack looked over Rhys’ body, his jaw clenched and he removed his one fist from the dent in the wall and gripped onto Rhys’ hip to check behind him. Finally, he stepped back from Rhys. “You fucking idiot,” Jack hissed, although not sounding like it was directed towards Rhys. Rhys didn't say anything as he used a hand to cover his face. 

Jack looked to Rhys’ phone, crushed on the ground and let out a low growl, he turned back to Rhys. His eyes weren't holding anything dark anymore, but he was clearly angry. “What if I was someone else?! What if I wasn't a good shot- W-What if I didn't  _ know _ what you looked like while running away like a scared rabbit?!” Rhys flinched and covered his face more as Jack's voice rose with every sentence. Through harsh breaths, Jack let out a frustrated yell. “What if I hurt you?!”

Rhys suddenly let out a sob and tried to make himself even smaller than before. Just as he did it seemed Jack snapped out of his anger, his body going rigid. Rhys could hear suddenly gentle footsteps walk up to him and he felt Jack pull him from the wall and cradle him to his body, trying to keep Rhys as close as possible. “I would never forgive myself if you got hurt again,” Jack whispered, tightening his grip around Rhys’ waist. 

The hesitant arms of Rhys soon wrapped around Jack, his hands gripping to the back of his jacket. “I-I’m sorry,” he choked out, hiding his face in Jack's chest.

“Don't apologize,” Jack murmured giving Rhys a tight squeeze letting out a nervous chuckle, “You were just doing what anyone else would do,”

“W-What?”

“I mean I fucking shot at you, granted I would've shot back, but someone like you or Denis... Speaking of that little bastard-” Jack tried to pull from Rhys’ hold, his anger was still clearly there but it was no longer directed towards the detective. Rhys didn't let Jack pull away, though.

“I was so scared,”

“No shit,” Jack whispered, placing his hand behind Rhys’ neck, “I gave you my personal code for a reason dumdum if I didn't want you to know about everything I wouldn't have given it to you. Even if I really didn't think you would come here of all places,” Jack finally tugged out of Rhys’ hold and started walking off towards where they were before, “Sorry about your phone cupcake, the heat of the moment. Though, just so we're clear sweetheart, the cops aren’t going to learn anything about this,” Jack stopped in his tracks and glared back at Rhys. “You coming cupcake? Police are probably swarming this place by now,” Rhys nodded slowly, following Jack while wiping his face. 

They had pretty much had walked silently back to where the scientist was still cowered in the corner, his wide eyes looking from Rhys to Jack, getting more frightened as he did so, “Denis! My man, make sure the loaderbots are hidden wouldya? If I come back down here and they're out again,” Jack looked to Rhys for a second before ushering him to the elevator and turning back to the scientist, “Well, let's just say you'll be more than just fired.” The elevator doors closed and Jack sighed, his shoulders slumping. 

“Jack?”

“I put my ass through all this trouble to keep you safe and I almost kill you, pretty ironic don't you think? I'll remember to take a different approach next time, with what...” Jack trailed off his body going stiff again, “That  _ asshole _ did to you,”

“It comes with the job,” Rhys said with an uneasy and shaky laugh coming from him.

“Which I have told you multiple times to quit. It's fine, just as long as you come back to me,” the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Just as Jack stepped out he saw Fiona down the hall, next to his office doors, “Looks like your friend got the call, go on,” Jack moved Rhys out of the elevator and gave him a little push. The sound of feet moving had caught Fiona’s ears as she swished around and spent no time running towards them.

“Jack! I swear to god if you did anything to him I'll-” Fiona stopped in front of Rhys grabbing his metal arm to tug him forward to be closer to her. She checked over him, sighing in relief when she noticed he had no injuries. “What happened?” She whispered to Rhys, her face clear with worry. 

“Well I-” Rhys looked to Jack who was scowling at him with an eyebrow raised, “No-Nothing,” he stuttered out finally.

“Well, you hear that? Nothing, so uhh, let me have my boyfriend back now, mkay?” Jack held out his hand, his face deadpanned. 

“If he wasn't your boyfriend I'd make sure he would never go near you- as far as I know you could've killed Henderson and his assistant,”

“Yeah, like I would do that,” Jack shifted himself and crossed his arms. Fiona had glared at him before her eyes caught something.

“You're coming in,”

“For what?!” Jack was standing defensively now his eyes wide, “You have no reason to take me in!” Rhys had looked to Fiona and back to Jack while chewing his lip.

“I'm afraid she can, Jack,” Rhys mumbled out and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Are you on her side now?!” Rhys blinked in shock and shook his head pointing to Jack's leg, where his gun was put back in his holster. Jack looked down with a grumbled and noticed it before letting out a soft, “shit,” 

“I believe that is an illegal firearm you are carrying,” Fiona said, a grin plastered on her face. Jack looked back up and drew up the gun, but before Fiona could react his tossed it to Rhys.

“Not illegal, because it's not mine,” he simply walked past the two, but felt a piece of cold metal wrap around one of his wrists.

“I'm afraid that's called stealing, plus we need to ask you questions about Henderson,”

“Fuck you stupid cop,” Jack whispered out in a growl before looking to Rhys as a sort of plea, but all he did was look away. 

“I'm a detective, Mr. Lawrence,”

 

“I'm not talking unless it's to Rhys,”

“That's the problem, you see he's your boyfriend now so he can't interview you,” Vaughn moved the papers on the table and squinted at them, “We just really need to know what connections you had to Henderson that's all,”

“Well at least you're not as dramatic as that other crappy detective,”

“I'm a psychologist, Jack, also a profiler. Fiona was just steamed up, she always kind of is.” Vaughn pulled out a picture of Henderson’s crime scene and let Jack see it, “Unfortunately I've seen how you handle people that piss you off and I can say a knife is not your style,” 

“Is that what your shrinky brain is telling you?”

“Hard evidence, we all remember Vasquez and we all remember your drug and assault charges, but you saved my friend so I'm cool with you, but it's my job to ask what was your ties to Henderson?”

Jack leaned back in his chair with a small smirk, “I saw him at a couple meetings, one time he came into my office and asked for a promotion,”

“Did you give it to him?”

“Hell no! I can't believe he had the balls too but no, no not at all,” 

“Alright the last thing I have to ask is where were you Saturday morning?”

“You really want to know?” Jack said with a small chuckle, raising an eyebrow at Vaughn.

“I... Kinda need to yeah,” 

“I had my tongue down Rhys’ throat after eating breakfast,” Jack leaned across the table, “You can ask Rhysie for the details,”

“Gross,” Vaughn whispered, leaning away before standing up, “Ok, well, while I get that out of my head, I'll go and give this information to Fiona, you can leave,”

“Thanks, shorty,” Jack waved and leaned back with a scoff as the door closed.

 

Rhys was pacing in his office biting his nail when he heard the door open behind him.

“Rhysie, you alright?” Rhys stopped his pacing and looked back at Jack.

“I have so much on my mind Jack,” Rhys whispered and sat down on his desk with his face in his hands. Jack looked back at the door and closed it before walking over to Rhys trying to keep his footsteps soft.

“What happened?” Suddenly Rhys reached out for the phone on his desk and pushed a button, the speaker coming to life.

“Listen Rhys, I'm being hunted and you are too- so I'll make you a deal, you get me out and I'll protect you from Vallory,” Jack looked at the phone, his eyes growing dark as he moved to hold Rhys close to him and away from the phone, “Your  _ stupid _ boyfriend won't be able to protect you anymore,” suddenly in a fit of rage Jack hit the phone away cradling Rhys to him with one hand.

“I'm going to kill him! If he thinks the-” Jack felt Rhys hide his face in Jack's neck. Jack went quiet and rubbed his back, “Did you tell anyone?”

“N-No, just you,”

“Good, Vasquez is going to pay for trying to threaten you like that,” with a soft kiss to Rhys’ cheek Jack pulled back, “He has no idea what he's saying Rhys, but from now on I'm going to be glued to you, understand?” Rhys slowly nodded and looked into Jack's eyes.

“I understand,”

“Good, try to take the rest of the day off, I want you with me.” Jack held onto Rhys’ hand.

“I’m sorry, y-you know I can’t,”

“I was afraid you would say that, alright fine. I’m staying then,”

“Jack,”

“No, don’t you “Jack” me, you heard me, I’m staying,” Jack grabbed Rhys up by the hips, earning a small squeak from the younger man as he put him down on his chair, “I’ll try not to get in the way,”

“You have a company to run, though!” Jack looked away from Rhys’ worrying his lip.

“I also have you to keep safe,” he whispered and crossed his arms, “You trust me right?” Rhys looked down at his desk and back up hesitantly.

“...Yeah,”

“Then trust me to protect you,”

“I do- it’s just he...he said that-”

“Forget what he said Rhys,” Jack snarled stepping closer to the desk, “I will make sure that you are ok, and if not then-”

“If not then what?” came a voice from behind the two, making Jack turn his body to them his face contorted into one of anger, “That’s what I thought,” Fiona said as she walked to Rhys and handed him some files, “These are all on Henderson, I also need to warn you,” Fiona whispered and switched her gaze to Jack.

“Warn him about what? Huh? What are you going to do?” Jack hissed at Fiona, getting no reaction out of her.

“Just be safe Rhys,”

“I’ll try... T-Thank you for the documents,” Rhys waved the file before sighing as Fiona was walking out. She glared at Jack the whole way, making Jack follow her with his own glare.

“I don’t like your friends,” Jack whispered and turned back to Rhys after she was out of sight.

“Too bad,” Rhys leaned on his hand as he flipped through the papers.

“Rhys... Hey could I say sorry about this afternoon again?”

“You practically just did,” Rhys looked up to Jack, giving him a small smile.

“There’s the sassy guy I wanted back,” Jack walked over to Rhys and fixed a stray hair on his head, “It’s going to be ok, I won’t let this case turn out like Tassiter’s, alright?” Jack gave Rhys a soft kiss on the lips.

“Alright,” Rhys whispered before being kissed again. 


	4. Bloodstream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys finds out a little more about Henderson's death, and the deal with Jack. It's not a real pretty one, but one of the witnesses is. [haha]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!! I am sooooo sorry I didn't update this on Friday- I was just so caught up. Forgive me

Rhys leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, It had been around a couple of hours and Jack had definitely stuck to what he said, even going as far as to put a man named Blake in charge of Hyperion in his absence. The smell of coffee came to his nose and he opened his eyes to see Jack placing a cup of coffee on his desk, a doughnut was in his other hand.

“Is that for me?” Rhys asked, leaning back up to grab the cup.

“The coffee yeah,” Rhys had stopped reaching for the cup and crossed his arms.

“You didn't think to get me a doughnut?”

“What, and make you look like a cartoon cop? Nah,” Jack raised the donut to his mouth but stopped, “Why? You want it?”

“I...” Rhys made eye contact with Jack seeing him grin and raise an eyebrow. Rhys reluctantly sat back and looked away, “I'm on a diet anyway,” Jack let out a soft laugh and clumsily broke the doughnut in half giving Rhys a piece.

“I've seen how much you eat multiple times, you're like a growing child,” after Rhys had taken the peace while glaring at Jack, the older man had finally sat down and made himself comfortable.

“So what I miss?” Jack asked while taking a bite of his own piece.

“Got a few emails from the forensic team, apparently Henderson went to a bar before he was killed.”

“Can't blame him really. Hyperion is a stress hole right now,”

“I can see that,” Rhys mumbled looking away into the distance.

“Rhys...” Jack had simply leaned forward.

“Let me just ask, do you just shoot anyone?” Rhys said his tone harsh but hushed.

“No I don't just shoot anyone, I thought you were some low-life employee trying to peek and take loader bot designs,”

“Oh, so you shoot at employees?”

“Ones that lurk in the dark like some serial killer, yeah,”

“You know what, speaking of loaderbots...” Rhys squinted at Jack.

“Really? What do you expect me to do about them? They were top secret,”

“So what? Are you going to do the whole evil villain thing and take over the world?”

“Evil vil-”  Jack furrowed his eyebrows, “I'm the goddamn hero, Rhysie,”

“Then why the fu-”

“Fine! The army a-alright,” Jack sighed and rubbed his face, “The army, Rhys, they're for the Army,” Rhys went quiet, along with his eyes going wide.

“No, n-no way they-”

“They're still in development. Trust me, Rhys, I don't want to make the war any more terrible, but I simply can't turn an offer down from the government,”

“No, I understand but...” Rhys look down at his hands, “Is this also why you have been so...”

“If you think that I think there's a Russian spy in my building then no,”

“What about Henderson?”

“He knew too, Rhys, and I knew that he knew because there was this boring as heck meeting about it, we all swore secrecy.”

“O-Oh my God...” Rhys bit his thumb while looking away.

“And now that Henderson was killed that information could have got out,”

“You could be getting targeted,”

“We both are Rhys,”

“What are we going to do?”

“Well try not to die and stick together,” Jack shrugged while sitting back.

“We need to find out who killed him,”

“Duh. That's your job,” Rhys shot Jack a glare getting a smirk in return.

“If we find out who killed him then we can find out who is after you,”

“And when we do I'm going to k-”

“No, I'm going to arrest them, you really have to work on that Jack,” Rhys stood to turn off his computer and grabbing a set of keys on his desk, “Come on I'm driving,”

“Oh come on, now I have to drive with the slow and the serious?”

“Jack...” Rhys muttered trying to cover up the fact he wanted to laugh.

“Wh-aha-at?” Jack said a slight laugh in his tone “I'm serious,” he stood and went to Rhys, softly laughing.

“I just want to be safe,” Rhys mumbled when Jack held him by the waist.

“There’s a difference between safe and Driving Miss Daisy, sweetheart,”

“Shut up,” Rhys murmured as he pulled from Jack’s grasp and walked out the door.

 

It had been around a couple minutes into their drive, Rhys had been mostly silent, once in a while he would check the GPS to make sure he was going the right way. Although Jack, on the other hand, was restless, he wanted to  _ talk _ to ask questions, but he also didn’t want to seem like a five-year-old and he already knew he had gotten on Rhys’ bad side more than once today. Jack fidgeted in his seat again and huffed while looking out the window.

It hadn’t gone by Rhys, he could tell that Jack was starting to get a little bit bored, after all, it was a bit of a drive from where the FBI headquarters was located and he was driving a little under the speed limit. He shot a quick glance at Jack and decided he would change things up a little bit, so naturally, he stepped on the gas and the SUV started to speed up. This had caused Jack to stop leaning on the window and looked a Rhys, an expression on his face that was a mixture between shocked and impressed.

“You’re speeding, I thought you wanted to be safe,” Jack said, his tone very obviously snarky.

“I thought you wanted to get there faster,” Rhys shot back, a playful grin coming to his face and his eyes switched from the road for a second, “Not so slow and serious now, huh?” Jack had blinked and bit his lip trying to hold in a laugh.

“Come on babe, you’re like only going a couple miles over the speed limit,” Jack whispered, looking out the window again, but this time with a smile, “So where  _ are _ we headed anyway?”

“Uhm…” Rhys checked the GPS again quickly, his eyes studying the name for a while, before looking back up, “Red Light, Henderson got a drink there and went back to his office apparently, we found the business card in his desk- along with alcohol content in his stomach.”

“God damn it,” Jack hissed and was now frowning again, and after all Rhys’  _ hard _ work too.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just keep driving Rhys,” The car went silent again, mostly due to the fact Rhys had already faced Jack out bursting multiple times today and would rather not dig. It had stayed that uneasy silence until they had pulled up and not even getting a chance to park the SUV, Jack was already getting out, “I want to get this done quickly, I don’t want you being out in the open,”

“You know I really appreciate you protecting me Jack but-“

“But what? You don’t want me here Rhys?” Jack had made eye contact with the younger man as he stepped out of the SUV.

“I never said that I just… I can protect myself, Jack,” Rhys closed the door and got his badge ready, not catching the hurt glance that Jack had given him.

“Alright, I… I get it,” Jack had whispered it out so softly that it didn’t catch Rhys’ ears as the approached the club, no music was playing and it was probably closed right now.

“Do you think anyone is in there?” Rhys murmured as he went up to the doors and gave them a slight push, surprisingly they opened up. “Hello?” Rhys called into the empty club, seeing a shuffle in the back, and then a woman popped her head out, her face covered in make-up it seemed.

“Sorry sugar, club is closed,”

“Oh no, I’m not here to party miss,” Rhys said, smoothing back his hair with a slight smile, “I’m uh… with the FBI,”

“The FBI?” She had now stepped out fully, wiping her hands on a cloth, “Why what do you need?”

“Oddly compliant, don’t you think?” Jack mumbled to Rhys, shooting the woman a glare.

“Oh, good, is this about the restraining order I filled beca-“

“No, ma’am uh… that’s not my department,” Rhys interrupted, only giving a slight questioning look to Jack.

“Yeah, uh- his  _ department _ is murder balloon tits,”

“Jack!” Rhys hissed, giving him a slight shove in his side.

“Oh, don’t worry about it sugar, Jack here isn’t a stranger to plastic surgery either,” She moved her hip out and put a hand on it, a Cheshire-like grin coming to her face, “Let’s face it, no one can ever look  _ that _ perfect,”

“I’m born naturally handsome,” Jack mumbled, looking to the ground, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Sure you are sugar, now,” Her attention switched to Rhys, “My name is Moxxi, Mad Moxxi,” she gave Rhys a slight wink before walking over and slightly pulling at his tie, “What do you need to ask me about sweetie?”

“W-We uh…” Rhys quickly cleared his throat and stepped back from Moxxi’s touch, she didn’t follow, only kept her gaze, “We need to know who works here, w-well firstly we need to…”

“Just me and two other girls, one is a real problem child I’ll tell you that,” Moxxi sighed, biting her bottom lip, “The other one I haven’t seen for at least five to six months,”

“Haven’t seen?” Rhys pushed raising an eyebrow.

“Her name is Lilith, I filed a missing person’s report a couple days after she disappeared,” This sent a shocked and worried look to Jack’s face, and it had definitely not gone unnoticed by the detective.

“We… Well, this is awkward,” Rhys rubbed the back of his neck, looking away from Jack’s shocked expression, “Now there’s a missing person,” Rhys shook his head, a little disappointed as he dug out a picture from his suit jacket, showing a picture of Henderson, “Do you know who this is?”

“I’ve seen him, I’m pretty sure…” Moxxi mused over the picture for a second before her eyes went wide, “Oh! Now I remember, he came into the bar and was gawking up one of my other bartenders, that was before she quit,” Moxxi sighed and waved Rhys towards her so she could grab the picture, “He left after he got a call, didn’t even drink what I served to him,”

“Knowing you, you probably poisoned it,” Jack looked away with a roll of his eyes, staring off into the distance to avoid seeing Rhys glaring at him. Rhys shook his head, exhaling annoyed.

“Excuse him, I don’t know what his  _ problem _ is,”

“It’s alright darlin’ I’m sure he’s just jealous,”

“Of what?” Jack snapped suddenly, making Rhys look surprised but Moxxi stood still with an unamused look.

“Obviously you miss getting a pi-“

“I’m going to stop you right there, Ms. Moxxi- was it?” Rhys gave her a smile, “That is all we needed today, thank you, if we have any more questions we’ll call you,” Rhys politely excused himself, walking off while putting the picture back in his pocket.

“Alright, sugar!” Moxxi looked to Jack, “So, do you?”

“You heard the fed,  _ Mox _ , that’s all we need,”

“I know you would never work with the feds Jack, what, do they have something over your head?” Jack looked back to the ground, then back up at Moxxi a grin spreading over his lips.

“Yes, actually, they have a nice pert ass,  _ that is waiting outside for me _ , So if you’ll excuse me,” Jack shot her a wink, earning a disgusted noise in return from her as he walked out and stopped looking at Rhys who was leaning against the SUV.

“You didn’t tell me she was your ex,” Rhys mumbled, seeing Jack walk up to him gently and move his head to Rhys’ neck to give it a soft kiss, then up to his lips. Rhys complied, running his hands up Jack’s arms that were caging him in. Jack pulled back, giving Rhys a smirk.

“I didn’t think I would have to, she’s not what I want anymore,” Jack moved his arms down, giving Rhys’ ass a slight squeeze, “You are,” Rhys felt his face heat up and he let out a nervous chuckle, giving Jack a quick peck on his cheek before managing to get out of his grasp.

“Come on you cheeseball, we need to get back,”

“Aye, aye captain Rhys,” Jack laughed out as he walked to the other side of the SUV and got in, just as Rhys was starting it up.

 

After turning his information in and getting a few papers done, he decided… well more  _ wanted _ to go home, he was tired of having the biggest distraction in the room talking to him while he tried to read e-mails and paperwork. Of course, by now that “big distraction” was taking a shower. Rhys had already taken one, and now he was waiting for Jack to get out as the water ran upstairs. He reached for a blanket on his couch and wrapped it around him, and grabbed the remote out from under him to change the channel. It was just news anyway.

Just as he was about to change it though he heard the alarm tone of breaking news, and he lazily watched as the news reporter started going on about the prison. Rhys yawned and tried to get himself comfortable, about to turn the channel again when he heard it.

“Among the people dead- was a convicted murder, and past chief of police, Hugo Vasquez,” Rhys had frozen in his tracks, his mouth dropping open as he tried to mouth out his fears. Vasquez was now…  _ dead _ . He was in a  _ maximum _ security prison, and he died. Rhys was finally understanding the situation, and that for once in that man’s wretched life he wasn’t lying.

“Jack?!” Rhys whined out from downstairs, only wanting to be near him and be  _ safe _ . He got up and started to make his way to the bathroom in a clumsily run when he finally got to the bathroom and knocked with a whine.

“Rhys?” Jack said softly, Rhys froze and slowly looked behind him.

“Y-You’re not in the sho-“ Rhys’ eyes trailed down to the bloody knuckles of Jack, which looked like they had been freshly cut open, and how his sweatpants that hung low on his hips were slightly torn. He quickly shifted his gaze back up into Jack’s eyes, “W-What did you…”

“Protected you,” Jack reached out to cup Rhys’ face, “Are you ok? You look like you saw a ghost,”

“Vas..Vasquez, he’s- h-he’s dead,” Rhys looked down just in time to not catch the grin forming on Jack’s lips, he pulled Rhys in and held him close.

“It’s going to be  _ fine _ , Rhys,” 


	5. Now We're Too Far Down For Closure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys finds out who Jack had beaten up outside his house, and in a turn of events, he has to ditch his house with Jack.  
> Then...something not so good happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!! I want to say I'm sorry for not sticking to the schedule but due to unfortunate life events I'm going to have to change that, I'll update once a week for a while, sorry. I hope this makes up for it, Enjoy. ('w'  
> I'm angst ridden and only hope for forgiveness ahahahhahahHAHAHA

Once Rhys had finally pulled back Jack's face went straight to a worried one, rubbing the tears off of Rhys’ cheek. “You'll be ok, I promise,” Jack whispered, leaning in to kiss Rhys only to find that he had pulled away before their lips could meet.

“Do you know who you fought?”

“It was the same one that gave me the scar,” Jack had rubbed the bottom of the scar where the coarse skin met the lighter, smooth one. Rhys grabbed onto Jack's wrist and led him to his bathroom to patch the open wounds on his hands up, “Woah- woah what are you doing?”

“P-Patching…” Rhys stopped grabbing for the first-aid kit and looked to Jack, “Patching you up?”

“No, you are  _ not _ , Rhys,”

“What- but Jack you’re…” Rhys saw how Jack had glared down at his hands with a hiss and shoved them into his sweatpants’ pockets.

“I don’t give a shit, we’re leaving and you’re going to stay with me in a hotel with a different alias or-“

“Are you asking me to be fugitive?” Rhys put his arms to his side defensively, he had set the first aid kit somewhere on the sink, soon he realized how Jack had gotten a bit rigid, “Why?”

“Babe, you are being  _ hunted _ , hell I would feel much safer if we just slept in my office with all of my- but the window, and…” Jack’s breath got a bit quicker and he turned from Rhys to hold his head and mumble to himself.

“Jack?” Rhys whispered, his face mixing his worry and curiosity, “Jack, what’s wrong?”

“When… When I get the chance Rhys, you and I are going to live far away from this mess,”

“I doubt that,” Jack had shot a glare back at Rhys, but ultimately let out a frustrated sigh as he took the first aid kit and shoved it into Rhys’ arms.

“Pack, Rhys, we’re leaving,” He sensed the worry in Jack’s tone along with some anger, so he didn’t dare argue as he started to get what he needed, which was mostly just his soaps and toothbrush along with the first aid kit already wedged under his left arm. When he had walked out of the room, cradling all his supplies in his arms, he looked around the hall for Jack who had mysteriously disappeared. His eyes had caught the multiple suitcases near his bedroom door though, so he guessed that’s where he’d put all of…. Well this. He moved to them and stuffed it in his bags when he heard muffled grunts from his room.

With as much caution as he could muster, he gently pushed the door open, spotting a red-haired woman, the bottom of her hair streaked white, bound and placed on Rhys’ bed. He opened his eyes wide, suspecting that’s who had come to kill him- or finish the job on Jack himself. Rhys watched as Jack had moved into the frame, placing his gun down with a sigh.

“I thought you were dead, Lilith,” The woman, Lilith, had glared at Jack and sent out a low growl that Rhys could almost not hear, “tsk, tsk, you’re getting too feisty,” Jack sent a grin her way and cocked his gun, it had made Rhys squeak and wince as he tried to look away, but he never heard the bullet, just a soft curse of “fuck,” Rhys dared to look up and saw Jack picking up Lilith and throwing her over his shoulder. She had squirmed and kicked her legs, causing Jack to spew out a few more, before he abandoned the effort and threw her to the ground, knocking the wind out of her. “Rhys,” Jack called out, stepping over Lilith’s body.

“Y-You were going to ki-… Did you not think I wouldn’t hear the bullet?!”

“I’d rather her die then you Rhys,” Jack had cracked open the door more and knelt beside Rhys, taking him into his arms and giving a soft kiss to his jawline. Rhys let him and stared at her, she had moved a little and looked up to Rhys. It gave him flashbacks to the warehouse, he had the same demeanor towards Vasquez.

“Let her go,”

“What? Rhys-  _ no _ ,” Jack held him closer, “I’m not risking that sweetheart,” Rhys kept staring at Lilith, her glare burning into him, even  _ after _ trying to be on her side.

“Jack,”

“No, Rhys, We’re leaving,”

“I don’t want you to be like Vasquez,” Rhys mumbled, pushing himself away from the older man’s grip with some force. Jack had stared right into his eyes, offended that Rhys would even suggest that.

“I’ll… I won’t keep her captive,”

“You won’t kill her either, right?” Jack looked away, anger deep in his eyes and his body going rigid, “Promise me you won’t,”

“I won’t,” Jack murmured and stood, going over to where she was lying and looked down at her, spewing venomous curses under his breath, “You’re lucky he doesn’t like killing people,” Although her mouth was gagged, there was a clear smirk on her face, mostly shown in her eyes. Rhys moved to stand up and Jack had turned his attention to Rhys, “Pack what you need up, we’re leaving,” Rhys only complied, moving towards his drawers to take a few things out.

After that, they had dropped off Lilith on the side of the road, much to Rhys’ dismay, and drove off to a hotel, where like Jack said they signed in an alias and paid in cash, “You’re forgiving nature sure is a cockblock,” Jack mumbled after closing the door to the hotel room, “You know she was trying to kill you right?”

“I’ll call the FBI later, it’s not a big deal,” Rhys sighed and started to unbutton his shirt before looking back at Jack, “You’re quite protective of me,” Jack had crossed his arms, but let out a laughing snort as he walked over and wrapped his arms around Rhys’ waist, putting his head on his shoulder as he leant into the younger man’s back.

“I don’t want to lose you again,” Jack whispered giving Rhys’ neck a soft kiss and trailed it up to his earlobe where he gave a soft nibble, causing Rhys give out a soft laugh and he placed his hands on Jack’s.

“You won’t,” Rhys whispered. As soon as Jack leant back, Rhys had turned around and moved his face to Jack’s kissing him deeply. He lovingly worked his lips against Jack’s own, but before Jack could pull him down to the mattress, Rhys had pulled away, “Let’s get to bed, we have to be in early tomorrow,”

When Rhys had finally got into work in the morning, which was rather difficult when all Jack wanted to do was hold him close and cuddle him, and Rhys truthfully wouldn’t mind if he wasn’t trying to find out who was trying to kill him and Jack, he had noticed Fiona sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk and was murmuring to herself. Rhys had told Jack to stay outside, but of course Jack didn’t listen as he followed Rhys in, exchanging a glare with Fiona.

“I thought I said you needed an invite,” Rhys teased Fiona, but she didn’t smile as she pushed up from her seat.

“I’m sure you’ve heard it already; it’s been all over the news… But uh… Vasquez is dead, I’m…” Fiona looked to the ground, “I’m getting taken off the Henderson case and put onto his,”

“What? N-No Roland can’t- he… can’t be serious right? Why not me I know way more about Vasquez the-“

“You know why, Rhys,” Fiona said as she turned to pick up a rather large file off of his desk, “Here, these are my notes on Henderson, I looked at ever possibility, like you did,” she tried to give Rhys a smile, but her gaze had switched back at Jack, “I’m sure you know what this means,”

“Oh god… Yeah, alright, which one?” Jack waved her off as he started to walk out the door, but stopped in his tracks as he watched Fiona walk past him. He looked back to Rhys with a small smile and decided to walk back over to him to steal a kiss. Rhys had only returned in momentarily before he was pulling back.

“This is so fucked up, b-by the rate it’s going this is going to be worse than Tassiter’s case,”

“No it won’t Rhys, I promise, alright?”

“You can promise all you want Jack, but we don’t even have anyone to tie to Henderson and… and Vasquez is  _ dead _ ,” Jack reached up and rubbed soothing circles into Rhys’ back and down it, leaning in to give him a soft kiss on the cheek.

“Believe me, Rhysie, I will do everything in my power to make sure this goes alright,” Rhys simply nodded before he watched Jack walk off towards where Fiona had left.

“Alright, you’ve been in here plenty of times, so I’m sure you know how this goes,”

“Answer the questions and ask for a lawyer when things get too heated, I  _ know _ ,” Fiona shot Jack a glare, which he had returned with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, crossing his arms, “It was a joke, but you look pretty cute when mad,”

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Fiona looked down to the rather small file in her hands and sighed as she opened it and looked over the top of it to Jack, “So, we all know you almost pummeled Vasquez to death,”

“Yes, which was a long time ago, may I remind you,”

“We all know you like to carry illegal firearms,”

“Ah-ah, wasn’t mine it was Rhys’ I was holding it for him, after all, he already throws a wicked mean punch with that robotic arm of his,” Fiona rolled her eyes and checked the file again.

“You have motive and means to kill Vasquez, so I don’t see why-“

“Again, wrong didn’t kill him, I was too busy to do that,”

“With what exactly?” Fiona gazed up from the file, tilting her hat back.

“Oh, here we go again, alright… I get it, everyone has to know,” Jack had mocked a sour tone but kept his smirk as he leant forward, “I was putting my tongue down Rhys’ throat, alright?” Fiona gave him an unamused look, “Plus, even if I did try, I couldn’t get past the guards at the prison, I’m not that sneaky, Rhys proved that to me last night,”

“Oh? How so?”

“That, sweetheart, is something you don’t need to know, but I will enlighten you, you should check Vasquez’ other contacts, I believe Rhys talked about an ‘August’? You should check him out, but…” Jack stretched and started to stand, seeing Fiona stand as well, “If you have nothing to hold me on, I want to get back to my boyfriend, thank you,” Jack gave Fiona a wink and walked out of the room, making a beeline to Rhys’ office only to find it empty. He cocked an eyebrow and walked in, looking around for any sign of the younger man, but there was nothing. Well, nothing until he was pushed forward by a sudden weight on his back.

Rhys had wandered from his office, sure he had work, but that was practically his excuse for getting up and seeing his friend. After all, they hadn’t really talked and Rhys could really use some one-on-one bro time. He smiled and shook his head as he knocked on the door to Vaughn’s office and waited for his friend to say something, but nothing came from the door.

In fact, it was a rare odd quiet, Rhys knocked on the door again, and even threw in some words to let his friend know he was here, outside the door, “Hey bro! Open up!” When still no sound came from his office, Rhys rose an eyebrow and texted Vaughn.

> You deaf or something? Open your door

Still there was no answer, and Rhys had probably waited a few painstaking minutes, and yet there was still nothing. Rhys bit his lip and called up his friend instead,  _ Maybe, just maybe he was sick _ . Rhys waited, and there was no answer.

It was like the world was starting to slow down, the fear in his gut rose all the way to his throat and he found himself trying to calm down over and over. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves, even if it had hardly done anything for him. He tried a few more times before he even decided to open Vaughn’s door.

It had surprisingly opened, allowing Rhys view into the pretty much vacant room, papers strewn about, and it wasn’t that unusual, Vaughn sometimes got a little cluttered and unorganized during cases, but this had sent alarms to his head, now only wondering where Vaughn could be. For maybe the fourth time Rhys tried to call up Vaughn again, and after a few long rings it had went to voicemail.

With a frustrated growl and the worry making itself known on his face he turned to run out of Vaughn’s office and back into his own, that’s when he noticed Jack was back.

It was stupid of him, sure, but he only wanted to be held by the other man and be reassured that everything was alright, with a low whine Rhys clung to Jack’s back sending the older man a few steps forward.

“Rhys what the he-” Jack was cut off by a whimper as Rhys wrung Jack’s shirt tightly.

“Vau- Vaughn…is…is,” Jack had pulled away from Rhys, as gently as he could, but still with enough force to break free from the tight grip he had on his shirt.

“What’s wrong Rhys?”

“Vaughn is gone!” Rhys whined out, his eyes wide and clear as a few salty tears ran down his face and his lower lip quivered slightly.

“Shit, Rhys, baby I’m sure that’s not it, he’s around here somewhere,”

“H-He’s not… in his office, he won’t answer his phone,” Jack shushed him quickly and held Rhys to him and started to kiss Rhys’ jawline.

“Shh, shh shh, he’s here Rhysie, don’t worry your pretty little mind about it alright? If it’s that bad I’ll search for him myself, ok pumpkin?” Rhys had relaxed considerably as Jack whispered to him, giving a weak nod before hiding his face in Jack’s neck. 


	6. There’s no time for second guessing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys is in a bit of a down spiral, and Jack wants to protect him...  
> But what if Jack's not there to do that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I said we would get to those bulky chapters that are just pure agnst?  
> Yeah?  
> Well its here ;)  
> Also if you've been wondering where I have been or why this took so long... Well I was in the hospital so...yeah that's fun.  
> Anyway enjoy this agnsty thing I wrote (uw u

Even with constant reassurance from Jack, Rhys couldn't get his mind off of Vaughn. With all that had been happening he kept expecting the worst, but Jack had insisted on going with the “Maybe he's sick and sleeping in,” excuse.

Although that could be true it hadn't stopped the bad feeling in his gut. It hadn't stopped that at all. Jack continued to shush his cries and pepper his face with kisses until Rhys had stopped and relaxed considerably. By the time Jack had noticed that he was calming down, Rhys had already pulled back.

“You need me to check his house?” Jack whispered seeing how Rhys had finally pulled off his glasses with a sigh and wiped his eyes.

“I would like you to, even though he would probably get mad at me for sending you, plus I thought you wanted to keep me close,”  Jack looked away from the questioning gaze and his eyes landed on Rhys' hip where the gun that he had said was Rhys' was in a hostler on his hip. 

“The FBI can keep you safe for a few minutes as I check up on him,” Jack reached out and ran a thumb over the bottom of Rhys’ lip, “Plus you said you could protect yourself, and I believe you now that you have  _ my _ gun on your hip,” this drew a soft laugh from Rhys.

“I can't believe you pulled that one out of your ass just to fool Fiona,” Rhys snickered out, feeling himself warm up from the chuckle he heard from Jack. He suddenly felt himself being pulled against Jack's chest and was kissed upon his forehead.

“I'll go check on him ok Rhysie?”

“Ok, b-be safe, please,” he tilted his face up and put on his glasses as he saw Jack give a smile to him.

“Of course, kitten,”

 

It had been maybe five minutes, maybe more, Rhys knew it would take a while to get to Vaughn's house let alone wake him up. That was if he was there and he  _ was _ asleep. 

Rhys hoped he was ok.

More than ok, really, he wanted Vaughn to walk into his office with a large steaming hot straight-off-the-burner coffee, the steam rising out of it and everything- and notes on the case that he would set down on his desk and lecture him about what he found.

He didn't get that.

Nor did he get Jack texting or calling him, but he could wait. He was patient. Rhys rubbed his temple and sighed looking at the case files that Fiona had placed on his desk. At least if he didn't have confirmation from Jack that Vaughn was ok and probably glaring at him, that look that Vaughn always gave Jack whenever he said something, he could at least look over Fiona's notes.

So he opened the file up and checked over everything. Henderson, murdered cause of death; several stab wounds. Rhys flipped to the next file, which was Henderson's assistant. Lane Dawson, 23 years old, suicide, cause of death; a gun shot wound to the head. Rhys closed his eyes tightly and leaned back in his chair. 

He couldn't get the scene out of his mind, granted he only saw what it looked like from what could be considered a civilian view, and he felt sorry for the people who had to work around her body, he knew there was something off. 

But what?

A successful businessman in his late forties, no wife, no kids- hell Rhys was sure this guy was a blank slate. Kept to much to himself, never got too close to anyone or anything.

Something drove him off.

Rhys knew Henderson had intel- why else would you kill a... Rhys opened his eyes and fixed his glasses to read it, Vice President of Securities Propaganda. He read over it again, sorry  _ Senior _ Vice President of Securities Propaganda. 

Why else?

He knew about the loaderbots, and Rhys knew, and Jack... Well, Jack wanted to keep it secret.  _ And I guess the President did too huh _ ? Rhys thought, leaning back in his chair again. 

There had to be something else, something he was missing. If he was a businessman in his late forties- who would he get close to? No wife... No kids...

“His assistant,” Rhys murmured out quietly to himself as he flipped through her file.

Wiped clean.

“Of course,” Rhys placed the file back down but saw a sheet of paper threaten to fall out of the file's hold. He took it and looked it over. It was from Fiona, a bunch of scribbled writings, theories, anything that she might have linked to the case.

One thing stood out, from this pile of rants and raves, though.

Henderson was with his assistant.

It was plausible, it could be true, but Rhys wouldn't be able to find out if that was the case or not, he didn't have her computer. Plus, she was wiped. He let himself go over the rest of what Fiona had written down, even crossed out, before he was snapped from his thoughts by the loud buzzing coming from his phone as it vibrated and danced across his desk. He looked at the caller ID and picked it up in a heartbeat.

“Did you find him? Is he ok?”

“No, I mean I don't know there's... A note on his- listen your friend doesn't do drugs right? Don't- Don't answer that.”

“Jack, what is going on- w-what did you find?”

“A series of...numbers? Codes? Fuck I don't know- I-” Jack cleared his throat, “I'm sorry,”

“Read them to me,”

“What? Why-”

“Read them. To. Me.” Rhys growled out- he really didn't mean to, but it did help get his point across.

“Right. Don't question the cop, got it. It says uh... 1032, 1071, 1072... I think this says... 217? There's one more it's really rushed it says... 207?” Rhys stared off into the distance as he repeated the sequence of numbers to himself.

“Jack... That's radio code,”

“I'm sorry radio  _ what _ ?”

“Oh, my god... Vaughn... Oh my god,” Rhys started to tear up as he held a hand over his mouth, Jack had gone quiet on the other end, almost too quiet now that Rhys knew what had happened to his best friend. “I need to get Sasha- a-and you need to get out of there-” suddenly there was a loud noise, like the sound a door makes as it cracks.

Then grunts and yells, Rhys cried out Jack's name, only to get no response, but the sounds of screams and yells as Jack fought with his attacker then the line went dead.

 

“So we get to ride with the siren on?” Sasha was already rushing into the van, probably happy to do some actual field work.

That didn't matter to Rhys right now.

He started up the van and switched on the sirens as he started to pull away, luckily Sasha had got in before he drove off. Rhys’ foot was pushing down the pedal not listening to Sasha's rambling until...

“Rhys! You need to brief me!”

“Vaughn... Kidnapped... Jack same fate,” Rhys mumbled out, pushing the pedal down more.

“What?”

“Are you armed?”

“Yeah, I am- is this deadly?”

“Vaughn wrote in radio talk before they got to him, 207, 217, 1032, 1071, 1072,”

“He was kidnapped and he saw people with guns?”

“I would tell you to ask him yourself, but uh,  _ he’s not here is he _ ?!” Rhys turned sharply and had made Sasha hold onto the van, a squeak of probably terror, probably some excitement. This was more than playing with guns or small targets, this was the real deal. Knowing that Vaughn wouldn't go down without a fight Rhys  _ knew _ there had to be bullets somewhere. He just needed Sasha's help for that.

“So this is dangerous is what you're saying?” Rhys looked over at her for a second seeing a smile on her face. He let out a scoff and smirked.

“I think you're enjoying this,”

“Hell yeah I am,” the car jerked as Rhys slowed it to try to buy himself some more time, maybe they didn't know he was here.

“Well you won't be for long,” Rhys clicked off the sirens and pulled into the driveway, “Stay. Just until I know it's clear- keep your head down- and  _ don't  _ get out of the car,” Rhys squinted at Sasha when she rolled her eyes.

“Right, so you want me to sit here like a dog until you get back?”

“You either listen or die, and I was already yelled at by your sister for taking you. Head. Down.” Rhys got out of the car and shut his door. He quickly pulled out  _ Jack's _ pistol, he simply left his at home and snuck up to the door only to kick it open.

“FBI! Come out with your hands in the air!” He shouted, nothing made a sound after that, the house was silent, no sign of life, there was no sign of Vaughn and no sign of Jack. So Rhys was totally alone in this house that faintly smelt of gunpowder, great. Rhys grumbled and started his way to his friend's bedroom, making sure to be as careful as possible. He opened the door and swung it open to find nothing, with a sigh he took a step back and looked down the hall where he saw a figure running towards him. He widened his eyes and pointed the gun only to see it was Sasha. “What are you doing?!”

“Helping you! You need an extra set of eyes- and I  _ know _ how to fire a gun I'll be fi-”

It was too late for Rhys to say anything.

A rookie mistake.

That's all it took.

“Sasha!” Rhys yelled as the man behind her tore out the knife he had stabbed in her side. He rose his arms to fire but was quickly knocked to the side by a much larger man, and had been held by his arms.

Rhys wasn't going to let this happen.

_ No. Way. In. Hell. _

He pushed with as much force as he could and had successfully knocked the man back. He stumbled as Rhys pulled up the gun.

_ One. _

_ Two. _

_ Three _ .

He turned to the other man now, holding a knife up to Sasha's throat.

“D-Drop your gun or I'll kill her!” The man screamed and Rhys cocked an eyebrow at him. He surprised himself at his docile reaction as he stopped standing in a shooting stance. His gaze met Sasha's for a second, her eyes were wide and she was shaking, but other than being scared for her life, she wasn't affected by the dead body with three bullet holes behind Rhys. The man holding Sasha pushed the knife more to her neck, making her whine out a plea, "I SAID DROP THE GUN!" the man's voice boomed, but he was also shaking in his boots. Rhys switched his gaze from Sasha to him.

“Alright, alright,” Rhys eyed the man as he slowly lowered the gun, but in one swift movement had moved it back up and shot him directly in the head, there was no time to react from the other party, and once the knife fell from his hold Sasha fell out of his grip. The man fell to the ground with a disgusting gurgle that made Rhys’ stomach turn.

But it was over now, they were both dead, and Sasha...

“I told you to wait for my signal,” Rhys whined as he rushed by her side and held her wound to stop the blood flow. He was more worried than mad right now- and she needed help. Sasha looked at him with a grin.

“What? And let you have all the fun?”

“This is far from fun,” Rhys mumbled pressing more into her wound, hearing a cry of pain from her.

“Now you tell me,”

“I'm going to call an ambulance ok? Stay with me Sasha,”

“Y-You’re acting like I'm dying,” she looked at Rhys and their gazes met, Rhys furrowed his eyebrow in worry.

“I am so sorry Sasha,”

“Are you saying that because you'll never hear the end of it from my sister?” She cracked a smile and tried to move, but cried out in pain as she clutched to the side that had been stabbed.

“Stay still- moving will make it worse,” Rhys whispered before pulling out his phone, “I am so sorry,” It didn't take Rhys long to call the ambulance to where they were, but considering that he made a makeshift bandage and helped Sasha out of the house, being as gentle as he possibly could. 

He felt terrible.

Not only was his best friend and boyfriend now kidnapped with no traces, he had got Sasha stabbed. Granted, she ran in on her own, but it was still his fault for taking her. 

He didn't know how he could live with that.

He looked up when he heard the sirens approaching. They were distant wails, but he knew when they reached, at least Sasha would be safe.


	7. Camisado

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of important things become uncovered this time- and what will happen to Jack?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got such a good idea where this is going- and thank you guys for comments, kudos, and reading! You guys are so awesome and I love you all! ('w ' I hope you enjoy this chapter, in this one I wanted to set up enough stuff to get to the chapters where everything goes downhill (even though it already is) This has a few different perspectives, mostly because everyone is more or less separated.  
> Also so sorry for the lateness, a lot has been going on ( u o u) -3

Rhys sat with his hands in his lap. It had been  _ two _ hours since they arrived at the hospital.  _ Two hours _ . He clenched his hand that was covered in Sasha's blood, his glasses had specks of the larger man's blood on it, as did his face and clothes. 

Removing his glasses he closed his eyes and leaned back, a soft laugh coming from him, which sounded more like the choking laugh you do when you make a fool out of yourself.

“Detective Rhys?” A woman's voice was heard from beside him, seeing the blood on him had startled a few and many asked if he needed medical assistance himself. He hardly had a scratch on him... Well not entirely, he did feel a bruise forming on his back where he was slammed into the wall.

Rhys opened his eyes and put on his glasses, the smears other than the streak of blood becoming noticeable to his eyes just as the nurse was, “That's me,”

“Sasha wanted you to know she's fine,”

“Is she?” The question was less of a retort and more of a question a worried parent would ask.

“She was stabbed in the kidney and lost quite a bit of blood, but she is fine, I assure you,” the nurse smiled as Rhys turned his head away with a sigh.

At least he knew one of his friends were ok.

“Rhys! I swear to god if she's hurt more than a scratch I will kill you!” Rhys snapped his head up with a squeak as the figure of Fiona came running down the hall followed by a doctor, two nurses, and a security guard. Rhys would have been ready to bolt if the scene wasn't temporarily funny for him. Fiona reached out as she stopped near Rhys and dragged the lanky man to his feet, or more his knees, by his shirt and glared directly into his eyes.

“Fiona, I swear she's fine-” Rhys started but felt too scared to finish.

“She's fine?! Then why is she in the ER Rhys?!” The guard pulled Fiona back and after a few tugs she let go of Rhys and turned her attention to the guard, “Let me go! I'm FBI!” She was about to start kicking, but to be honest, he wasn't going to stick around to see this. As Rhys started to walk away Fiona screamed after him, “I'll hunt you down!”

 

The light stung- he knew there was a bag over his eyes before this, even if he had been knocked out. He was now just hoping someone got the letter by now.

“You're awake! Good,” the voice didn't sound condescending, it was more hopeful... Also whoever this voice belonged to they needed a glass of water, the scratchy sound of the voice sounded bad. Vaughn turned his head to where the voice was, an old man with darker skin smiled at him, his eyes looking blind and the glasses on his face didn't look like they helped.

“Who are you?” Vaughn croaked out, his head was pounding and it also sounded as if he needed water.

“That doesn't matter, what does matter is that you're safe right now,” the man folded his hands and looked down to them.

“Safe? But I was kidnapped,” 

“Yes! Yes, you were... I know you work with the FBI so... Do you know about Kelder?”

“I... Can't say I do...” Vaughn mumbled, sitting up, he wasn't chained or strapped down to anything, and the bed he was on was normal.

“Kelder is a gang, they mostly ruled over New York. Very popular. They have a few people here and there, mostly elite fighters,” the man stopped to cough as he stood, “That's who caught you, Kelder did, I was just passing by and helped you out,”

“That...” Vaughn refrained from saying that it hadn't made sense, after all, what did he know? 

“You know Jack?” 

“That's an understatement,” the man gave Vaughn a gentle smile.

“Kelder has plans for him, I'm guessing they thought you knew too,”

“Or I was bait...” The sudden realization hit Vaughn and his head snapped to the old man.

“For whom? Jack?”

“No...  _ Rhys _ ,”

 

Rhys had gone back to the bureau to try to see if he could find any leads on where Jack or Vaughn went.

That's when it hit him,  _ Lilith _ .

He was sure of it, she and Jack weren't on good terms, and even though he had tried to save her, she didn't seem like she liked Rhys himself.

“Sasha told me what happened,” Fiona's voice startled Rhys so much that he yipped when he turned around, “Don't worry I'm not going to hurt you... That bad,” 

“What are you doing here?”

“Uh, I work here,” 

“No, no I know, I meant in my office,” Fiona sighed and closed the door to Rhys’ office

“After Sasha told me what happened I sent a forensic team out to investigate, the two men you killed were in a gang,”

“Do you know which?” Rhys started to sound hopeful but then Fiona shook her head

“I looked in the database everything about the sigil was wiped clean,”

“Just like everything else in this case,” he sat down rubbing his temple and let out an exasperated sigh. Fiona let her tough facade slip for a second as she sat down near Rhys.

“Hey we'll find them,”

“And what makes you so sure?”

“We have the best two detectives working the case,” Fiona nudged Rhys.

“But it can't be a case yet,” Rhys murmured as he noticed the twinkle in Fiona's eyes.

“Says who huh?”

“Says Roland, wait... Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”

“Listen, I’m really only doing this for Vaughn, and if that means going behind Roland’s back to make sure he’s safe, then I’ll do it,” Rhys looked down to his desk as Fiona’s words sunk in. 

“We shouldn’t,”

“Rhys, I’m not usually the one to stand up for... Jack, but, the guy drove across the country and risked his life to save you when you were kidnapped, you can go behind Roland’s back to save him,” this time her words stung Rhys.

“Y-You’re right, we have to for Vaughn and Jack,”

“Great! I’ll search Vaughn’s office- do you have any access to Jack’s?” Rhys simply nodded, he had a lot of access to Jack’s stuff...

Surprisingly... 

“Then you go check his, I’m sure there’s a reason for him to be kidnapped, other than stepping in Vaughn’s house,”

 

Jack heard a noise behind him of the window opening, he slowly put down the phone in his hand to look back at the total brickhouse behind him.

“Oh fuck,” Jack whispered as he dropped the phone from his hand to grab his gun, but his hand closed around the air. 

Of course, Rhys had his gun...

It was too late to dodge the punch the man sent, his fist colliding with Jack’s face, and leaving a large scratch on his face.

_ Asshole was wearing rings. _

It’s ok, Jack could fight dirty too- instead of rubbing his jaw from the impact, Jack took the nearest thing to him, which happened to be a lamp, and swung it at the man’s head. He didn’t see that coming!

Although, it hardly did anything to him. Soon Jack was pinned, he started to kick and yell to try to have anyone hear. The man on top of him punched him again and the only thing Jack heard before passing out was Rhys.

“ _ JACK _ !”

Jack opened his eyes with a gasp. As far as he knew he was in the back of a beefy van... A federal van. He looked around mostly to catch his bearings of where he was exactly, then down to his hands. Handcuffs...

_ Great _ ...

Jack was good at what he did but there was no way in hell he could break out of handcuffs... well, without a paperclip. His eyes drifted to a window that was in between the cab and the “trailer” if you could call it that. It was barred, but it looked like he could try to get the driver of the vehicle to open it. Maybe banter with him for a bit. Maybe he could annoy the driver to death.

Jack stood and while trying to stay as upright as he could in the wobbly van and made his way up to the window, his first idea was to hit his handcuffs against the bars to make a noise that would definitely drive the driver crazy, and it did. The driver quickly broke and that had caused Jack to jolt forward and slam his head against the wall of the van. He let out a pained hiss, leaning back and bring his hands up to rub at the sore spot.

“Would you stop that?!” the driver looked back and he was not the man that had brought Jack down, he was nowhere near as buff. 

“Oh, I’m so  _ sorry _ am I annoying you?” The man scoffed and jerked the car forward as he started to drive again, making Jack fall backward and land on his back, making him let out a gasp. “Hey! Precious cargo back here!” he yelled as he started to sit back up and rub the now sore spot on his back. After he killed these fools- whoever had caught him- he was so going to go to a masseuse. The man scoffed again, then they both went quiet. Jack scooted himself against the wall by where he was placed on a bench earlier, it was silent, really silent. Other than the engine and the thud on the back door...

_ Wait...Thud? _

Jack kept his eyes on the back door, listening for anything- and that’s when he heard it.

_ Beep. beep. Beep. _

Jack’s eyes widened, “Hey asshole, you possibly didn’t steal me from someone did you?” Jack kept his body lowered behind the bench and put his head down. There was no way he was dying to a bomb. 

“Would you shut u-” the man’s voice and words were cut off by the sticky bomb on the back of the van exploding followed by an uzi shooting up the side of the van, it finally reached the driver and with three bullets sprayed into the driver’s window, the man fell limp onto the steering wheel and sent the van swerving and falling over on the road. The van threw Jack out of his hiding spot and onto the floor, where the back door of the van fell off its hinges. With the strength he could muster at the moment he started to crawl his way to the open door, right before he was met with a gun to his face.

There was a blonde man standing there, holding the uzi that had just killed the driver to Jack’s skull, “Hey there,  _ remember me _ ?” The man dragged Jack up from the back of his shirt and grinned at him.

“Uhm... you know, I mean you kinda look familiar but I-” The man hit Jack with the butt of his gun at full force, knocking him out for the second time that day.

 

“You made a scene while getting him, have I taught you nothing?”

“Well if I didn’t, _mother_ , then the bait wouldn’t have worked, would it? I mean you want Rhys killed, don’t you? There, we got Jack so that should-”

“We didn’t get Jack for that,” 

“Well sorr-uh-y, I’ll try to be more discreet next time,”

“Are you giving me an attitude?”

“ _ Wh _ \-  _ no _ , no I’m not,”

Jack opened his eyes slowly, the blinding light filling his vision before it slowly fixed itself, two people were standing in a near corner talking, behind them was a couple of computer screens. Jack tried to move, but he was pulled back by the chains behind him, oh how nice, he was chained up. The two guards that were beside him looked to Jack, but he didn’t want their attention. With a wolf whistle, he got the two’s attention standing by the computers, mother and son... If he heard right.

“This is pretty kinky, but isn’t S&M a third date thing? Don’t get me wrong, I’m into this but-” One of the guards kicked him, making Jack shut up and cough instead.

“Oh god, he’s awake,” The man that had knocked him out in the van was crossing his arms now, looking in Jack’s direction. 

“Good afternoon Jack,”  _ man _ , did this woman smoke a pack a day or what? “I know you’re probably confused,”

“Pissed off is more like it,” Jack grumbled.

“So, I’m going to make this clear,” The woman started to walk towards him, the clacking of her high-heeled boots reverberating around the room, “I’m sure you remember what happened with Tassiter,”

“Mhmm... yeah, yup I do,” Jack rolled his eyes, “Is this what this is about? Listen, I had nothing to do with that,”

“You didn’t let me finish,” the woman started to walk around Jack, the guards backing off from him so she could, “Thanks to a certain person I’m down a lot of money,”

“Oh! Oh! I know this one! It’s because of Wallethead right? You had him killed and scared the pants off of Rhysie,” Even through his laughter, there was a lot of menace in Jack’s voice, but the woman simply didn’t seem invested in what Jack had to say as she stopped behind him.

“Yes, but I have heard of something more valuable than the money Tassiter owed,” The sound of metal slipping out of something caught Jack’s ears, “Something to do with you,” Jack’s face distorted into a snarl.

“What do you want?”

“The codes for the loaderbots,”

“And here I thought you didn’t have a sense of humor,” When Jack tried to move his eyes to look back at the woman he saw a sparkle of a blade by his neck.

“Oh, this is no joke,”


	8. Regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search begins!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regret, more like I regret not updating this.  
> I had a bit of a block on this fic for a while so I'm so sorry it's getting updated late, I really hope you liked this chapter! I wasn't so sure about it myself since it took like a month (was it?) to get it out and I kept changing everything because I thought it wasn't right... I hope you guys like it though!

_ Another shock _ . Jack tried to hold back the pained scream through his teeth, as soon as the shock stopped, he heard the same woman’s voice, “Are you ready to give up the codes?” Jack looked up to the woman, a weak smirk on his face.

“I could do this all day,” Jack said through gritted teeth. 

“Another,” the woman commanded the grunt, and they sent out another shock, which had made Jack scream and clench his fists. 

 

“Did you know they assigned a new chief?” Rhys looked up from his papers at Fiona, who was typing on her laptop. 

“Oh? Why should I care?” 

“I may or may not have asked for her help,” Fiona said while pausing her typing, “We have twenty-four hours before this can be made an official case, which we have no idea if they’ll put us on or not,” Rhys nodded in understanding, “We need all the help we can get,”

“But the chief of police Fiona?”

“She promised not to say anything, it’s stupid but I trust her,” Fiona sighed, out of frustration of Rhys’ obedience, somewhere deep down she understood, though, “I even got help from Yvette,” 

“Right, let me guess we have to meet somewhere in private,”

“Your house would be fine,”

“I’m living in a motel right now Fiona,” Rhys hissed, making her widen her eyes and give him only a questioning glance.

“Why?” Rhys went silent and turned back to his paperwork, “Rhys...”

“Somebody broke into my house,” Rhys murmured under his breath.

“Are you serious?”

“Why would I lie about that,” Rhys looked up to Fiona, who was now crossing her arms.

“If Jack wasn’t missing I’d say that’s the reason why,”

“Why are you so against Jack?!”

“Because he’s hiding something Rhys!” Rhys had gone quiet, and the room fell into a painful silence, “He is, isn’t he? Do you know?”

“No,” Rhys lied in a whisper.

“Rhys...”

“No, I don’t know anything Fiona, and we’ll meet at your house, now get out,”

“You’re lying to me,”

“ _ Get. Out _ .” Fiona shut her laptop and walked out of the room, but at the door, she paused and looked back.

“You’re almost as bad as he is,” She muttered before stepping out of the door and closing it. Rhys sat there for a little, before taking off his glasses and shoving his hands in his face with a frustrated groan.

  
  


Rhys was quiet for most of the time that Fiona explained the plan to the other two in the room. The one in a purple crop top and black jeans and what looked like a worn cowgirl hat laughed at the mention of Jack being captured. Nisha, if Rhys remembered her name correctly, spoke up after laughing, “Sorry, I just can’t get over the fact Jack got himself caught,” 

“I thought the same, but I guess anyone can get caught with the right distraction,” 

“I’d say, it was you right?” The focus was now on Rhys and he sighed before turning his head away.

“Ignore him, Nisha, he’s a little grumpy,” Fiona said, almost sarcastic.

“Sorry, Fiona, how about you talk when your boyfriend and best friend get captured and possibly tortured,” The group around him went silent, and he again turned away.

“Right... Anyway back to the plain, we’ll have to find them first, but that’s where you two come in,”

“You can’t do it yourself?”

“And have the FBI find out? Yvette ever since you left things have gotten stricter,” 

“Yeah, I’d say, sometimes I get Roland telling me I can’t do certain things, and here I thought it was because I was new to the whole chief thing,”

“I do still need some info from the FBI, I just didn’t know it’s gotten like this,”

“Instead of the work talk,” Rhys said, standing from his seat, “How about we search for the two missing people,” The three women looked at him, only one that had given him a sympathetic look was Yvette. 

“He is right after all,” Yvette whispered to the other two, “Let’s get to work shall we?” The others nodded in agreement.

 

Vaughn twirled in the swivel chair before looking back at the old man, “You know you never told me your name,” The old man paused his work on the small device as he looked up.

“My name is not important,” 

“But then what will I call you? Or tell the people about who saved me?”

“You say an old man,” He simply replied, going back to work. 

“Why won’t you tell me?”

“I need to stay hidden, I have an assassin on my tail, and if you tell who I was, it is possible they will be on your tail too,” The old man hadn’t looked back up but Vaughn go the memo and quieted down.

“When will I be able to leave?”

“When the storm passes,” Vaughn let out a sigh at the man’s vague answer and leaned back in the chair. 

  
  


“You are a strong one,” The woman croaked at Jack, who had not much energy left but to growl at her, “Breaking you isn’t an easy task, although I have a much better resource to get what I want from you than this,”

“What will it be? Breaking my fingers?” Jack choked out, glaring at the woman.

“No, your heart,” Just like that the computer screen behind her showed a picture of Rhys, taken from a distance as the man was holding Jack’s hand.

_ No _ .

Jack’s eyes widened, and he should have hidden his fear, but how could he? How could he hide his fear from a threat on Rhys’ life?

“So what do you say? Shall we send the invitation?” She asked pointing at the picture, Jack kept silent as he kept his gaze on the picture, not even noticing how much he missed the lanky man.

“Please don’t hurt him,” he whispered out, only getting a cackle from the woman.

“I’ll tell them to be careful when transporting him here,” With that she walked out of the room, leaving an angry and  _ terrified _ Jack in the room by himself. 


End file.
